A New Year and a New Blog!

Greetings everyone in blogger land.

I have had it in my mind for sometime now to do a blog about books and reading. I've been inspired by my friend Betty whose book blog I read with great interest.

Whenever I finish a book I feel like I want to share my impression and I sometimes do that in the back of the book (in pencil, of course - although some would say it a sacrilege to write in books at all). I do not want to write what you'd call a review, only just a few comments. You, my friends will be the readers of said comments.

So how do I begin? Well, I should start off with something I've just read I suppose but instead I will tell you about last year's reading. I went over my records to find all the books to which I gave 4 or more stars out of 5. I must state here that I am a very stingy star giver. That's something I intend to change in the future. (One might say a resolution of sorts.)

In 2015 I read 47 books and only 7 of them got 4 or more stars. Percentage wise it doesn't seem like I read very many great books and I think I did. That's why I've got to get a little more generous with the stars. Also surprising to me was the fact that 5 of those books were non-fiction.

Two 4 star reads in fiction were The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, a book not everyone loved, and the other was Stoner by John Williams. If I told you the plot of Stoner you would think it likely a bore. You could not be more wrong. This book was a master class in writing. I often couldn't put it down. Arguably the best book I read in 2015 was Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis. It got 4.5 stars! It won the Giller prize so I guess others think it was pretty good too!

The list of non-fiction 4 star reads from 2015, in no particular order:

Soul of a Lion: One Woman's Quest to Rescue Africa's Wildlife Refugees by Barbara Bennett
One for the Books by Joe Queenan
Turn My Mourning into Dancing by Henri Nouwen
The End of Religion: Encountering the Subversive Spirituality of Jesus by Bruxy Cavey
Kiss Guide to Yoga by Shakta Kaur Kalsa

Those who know me personally will think that list sums up a lot of my interests rather well!

Penny